Flu-like Symptoms: And all the Rockies are below average | Baseball Prospectus ($)
Rob Mains of Baseball Prospectus compares how three adjusted hitting metrics have valued the Rockies’ offense in team history: wRC+, OPS+, and Baseball Prospectus’s own DRC+. We’ve known the problems with wRC+ ever since Purple Row’s Matt Gross asked if the numbers were lying (they almost certainly are). More pointedly, Mains wonders how in the world the Rockies have had a below average offense in every year of their existence, as wRC+ suggests. That, statistically, is not very likely.
Both of the other metrics do a better job, and they at least acknowledge that the Rockies had above average offenses in their past. DRC+ in particular is the only adjusted measure to adjust for every plate appearance rather than applying a batter’s home park factors to his entire season, as wRC+ does. Here’s the takeaway:
We don’t see Coors to be as advantageous as OPS+ and wRC+. It’s advantageous for sure; we just don’t see it as wildly so. Similarly, DRC+ doesn’t view the three pitchers’ parks in the Rockies’ division—Petco Park, Dodger Stadium, and Oracle Park—as run-stifling as do OPS+ and wRC+.
DRC+ does seem to be the best adjusted metric for Rockies hitters. I just wish it Baseball Prospectus was as easy to navigate as FanGraphs (wRC+) and Baseball Reference (OPS+) to find the stats I want.
What’s your go-to adjusted hitting stat?
Rockies let go of three minor league coaches | Rockies.com
We’re here for your Lee Stevens news. The Rockies let Stevens, Hartford hitting coach, go on Tuesday. He’s been a part of the organization for seven seasons, coaching hitting at various levels.
What’s that? You’re not here for Lee Stevens news? Well the Rockies also let go of Norberto “Paco” Martin, the Asheville Tourists’ hitting coach. Martin was with the team for three seasons.
In addition to the Rockies cutting ties with Lee Stevens and Norberto “Paco” Martin, the Rockies also fired Albuquerque manager Glenallen Hill. Hill has been with the Rockies organization since 2004, including a stint with the major league team as first base coach. He’s also famed for once hitting the ball entirely out of Wrigley Field.
I either buried the lede or am correctly equating the organizational significance of all three of these staff positions.